View full sizeIn a new report out this morning, Alabama Policy Institute says the City of Huntsville spends almost $90 million a year more on municipal government operations than the average of nine similar-sized cities across the Southeast. (Eric Schultz | eschultz@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A conservative think tank that spent months measuring the financial health of Alabama's four biggest cities says Huntsville spends almost $90 million a year more running its government than the average of nine similar-sized cities across the Southeast.

According to a report released this morning by the Birmingham-based Alabama Policy Institute, Huntsville's budget for all city government operations swelled from $185.7 million in 2000 to more than $323 million in 2010 - an increase of 73.9 percent. Per-resident government spending during that period jumped from $1,174 to $1,794, compared to an average of $1,411 per resident for the cities Huntsville was measured against.

While Huntsville's spending on general government and public safety is in the middle of the pack, it has by far the biggest public works budget -- $390 per resident in 2010, versus an average of $122 per resident for the other measured towns.

Reducing public works costs to the nine-city average would save Huntsville taxpayers about $48 million annually, the report states.

"In many cases, governments have a harder time cutting than they do growing," Cameron Smith, Alabama Policy Institute's general counsel and policy analyst, said Thursday. "Huntsville's leaders should be careful about how they expand government as the population grows.

"What we want is for Huntsville's leaders to maybe call some of those other cities and see if they can do what they do more efficiently," said Smith.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said what the report doesn't mention is that the Rocket City weathered the recession better than most of the places it is being measured against. So while other cities in the report were scrapping important road and sewer projects for lack of money, he said, Huntsville was able to stick to its long-range plan.

"In 2009, 2010, 2011, the other cities quit doing capital projects," Battle said Thursday night. "We're still building roads because we know we have to have them to have the 18-minute average commute time and continue to have the quality of life."

"This report is nothing I'm going to apologize for," said Battle, "because it really says the City of Huntsville has continued to grow, to do its infrastructure, to do its sewer plans - even through a recessionary time."

One reason for Huntsville's large public works budget is the size of the city limits, which now stretch from Owens Cross Roads to Athens in Limestone County. At 209 square miles and counting, Huntsville has far more land area to maintain than the cities it was measured against.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for example, is just 34.8 square miles. Chattanooga is closest to Huntsville is physical size at 137.2 square miles.

Updated at 2:04 p.m. to correct that Huntsville's total spending on government operations grew 73.9 percent from 2000 to 2010, not 52.8 percent.